Thematic Bible: Defender of the weak


Thematic Bible



Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray over them. The disciples checked the people, but Jesus said to them, "Let the children alone, do not stop them from coming to me: the Realm of heaven belongs to such as these."


When he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath, there was a woman who for eighteen years had suffered weakness from an evil spirit; indeed she was bent double and quite unable to raise herself. Jesus noticed her and called to her, "Woman, you are released from your weakness." read more.
He laid his hands on her, and instantly she became erect and glorified God. But the president of the synagogue was annoyed at Jesus healing on the sabbath, and he said to the crowd, "There are six days for work to be done; come during them to get healed, instead of on the sabbath." The Lord replied to him, "You hypocrites, does not each of you untether his ox or ass from the stall on the sabbath and lead it away to drink? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for all these eighteen years, was she not to be freed from her bondage on the sabbath?"


Now there was a woman in the town who was a sinner, and when she found out that Jesus was at table in the house of the Pharisee, she brought an alabaster flask of perfume and stood behind him at his feet in tears; her tears began to wet his feet, so she wiped them with the hair of her head, pressed kisses on them, and anointed them with the perfume. When his host the Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, "If he was a prophet he would know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him; for she is a sinner." read more.
Then Jesus addressed him. "Simon," he said, "I have something to say to you." "Speak, teacher," he said. "There was a moneylender who had two debtors; one owed him fifty pounds, the other five. As they were unable to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, now, which of them will love him most?" "I suppose," said Simon, "the man who had most forgiven." "Quite right," he said. Then turning to the woman he said to Simon, "You see this woman? When I came into your house, you never gave me water for my feet, while she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair; you never gave me a kiss, while ever since she came in she has kept pressing kisses on my feet; you never anointed my head with oil, while she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, many as her sins are, they are forgiven, for her love is great; whereas he to whom little is forgiven has but little love." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of committing adultery, and making her stand forward they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now Moses has commanded us in the Law to stone such creatures; but what do you say?" read more.
(They said this to test him, in order to get a charge against him.) Jesus stooped down, and began to write with his finger on the ground; but as they persisted with their question, he raised himself and said to them, "Let the innocent among you throw the first stone at her"; then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground. And on hearing what he said, they went away one by one, beginning with the older men, till Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Looking up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." Jesus said, "Neither do I; be off, and never sin again."]


Then Mary, taking a pound of expensive perfume, real nard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, till the house was filled with the scent of the perfume. One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was to betray him), said, "Why was not this perfume sold for ten pounds, and the money given to the poor?" read more.
(Not that he cared for the poor; he said this because he was a thief, and because he carried the money-box and pilfered what was put in.) Then said Jesus, "Let her alone, let her keep what she has for the day of my burial. You have always the poor beside you, but you have not always me."


he answered, "I told you that I am he; if it is me you are looking for, let these men get away"